Laundry and the birth of a blog

Sometimes I daydream about winning the lottery, becoming an instant celebrity, or being the lucky one-millionth shopper at Safeway rewarded with a year’s worth of groceries for my family. And sometimes, like a few mornings ago, I imagine what it would be like to be suddenly on my deathbed – the thoughts, feelings, and emotions. The fears that would be going through my mind, and the hope of complete rest on the other side. To be completely honest, this daydream becomes more frequent the more tiring life becomes with young children. It’s not a death-wish, but rather a very strong desire to be lying down, and sometimes it seems the only viable excuse for a mother of multiple preschoolers to lie down is if she is deathly ill.

Anyway, in my wide-awake dream that morning, I had some last words that caught me off guard. I was holding my husband’s hands and looking seriously into his loving eyes as I said faintly, yet passionately, “Keep… the laundry...going… .” Romantic, right?

I started laughing at myself in the shower. “That’s all you could come up with, Warner?” I thought to myself. But then I thought some more and realized that I had finally had a breakthrough.

Laundry, out of all other household tasks, has been my most dreaded task. Not because I don’t like touching soiled clothes, or because I hate folding them and putting them away, or because I frequently shrink the best articles of clothing we own (all true). The reason I loathe laundry is because it is a chore that is never completely done. No matter how many loads get done in a day, another load is waiting in the wings, or rather on sweaty bodies sleeping in their beds.

But it occurred to me this morning that finishing the laundry is not the chore. Keeping the laundry going is – and it is worth it. Because every soiled onesie and sweaty jersey represents life and all of life’s activities. Life gets messy, and that’s good. All the washing, drying, folding, and putting away is so that life may continue.

This blog is about embracing life, even the seemingly mundane aspects of it. I’ve never kept a personal blog before, but here it goes. We’ll see if I can keep it going!